How To Keep 'Em Coming

I ate seven hot dogs last night. Seven medium sized hot dogs, most with varying degrees of mustard and ketchup. And a big soft pretzel, and most of a lemonade smoothie that my girlfriend didn't want. And a beer.

But the seven hot dogs are what's going to remain in both my memory and my colon for weeks to come, because for the foreseeable future I will remember that on June 30th, 2014, the Columbus Clippers had Dime A Dog Night, where the Q-grade meat loving citizenry of Columbus, Ohio turned out in force on a beautiful night to eat something like forty thousand hot dogs.

Look, I'm not proud of eating seven hot dogs. That's a decent amount of hot dogs, but I'm not Joey Chestnut. I'm just sitting here on my couch, hoping that in the next several hours that whole night doesn't backfire on me in a very literal way. A logical person might look at my gastronomic adventure and ask why. But I know why. It's because there were hot dogs. And they were being sold for ten cents.

Doesn't matter what sport it was, what the weather was like, who was playing, or any other factor that goes into determining whether or not you want to attend a game of any sport. Last night, I was at Huntington Park, watching the Clippers play Louisville. Because there were hot dogs.

And they were being sold for ten cents.

During the game I had a conversation with my girlfriend about this topic: let's say that you were the public relations idea man for a small market sports team, especially one like a minor league baseball team that might struggle to put fans in the seats. Figuring out how to actually do just that might be, in my estimation, one of the more interesting marketing jobs in the country, and sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.

Goofy hat night, free t-shirts, anthromorphic food races, videos of a monkey doing something that a human would but cuter because it's a monkey, coupons for 25 cents off spark plug purchases, I absolutely love what small market teams do to get the public to their games.

But for whatever reason, Ohio State football is largely above that. It shouldn't be.

Especially since many other (less popular) Ohio State varsity sports do the same kind of things! Men's hockey gives away cowbells and has a Ladies' Night. Baseball has an Easter egg hunt. Women's lacrosse allows kids 8th grade and younger to do exercises with the team. Many others have giveaways, t-shirt tosses, and tons more.

They do those things largely to attract more of an audience, a problem that Ohio State football doesn't have, at least yet. College football as a whole has seen attendance decline, and while OSU hasn't felt the sting of that yet, it might soon. Even as Ohio Stadium undergoes an expansion this summer, Gene Smith and company also shouldn't forget that attendance numbers for the first three games of the season were less than impressive, at least by Ohio State standards. Florida A&M drew a stated 103,595 fans, still a ridiculous number, but a similar blowout against a horrible opponent in Eastern Michigan during the 2010 season had over 105,000 fans on hand.

O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

In fact, if you look at the three "non-marquee" cupcake games, Ohio Stadium attendance has been dropping since 2010. 2012 was the first time since 2008 that Ohio Stadium saw less than an average of 105,000 fans for those type of games (and most of that was due to a truly awful Troy game that few went to or remember).

Last season the average attendance for those three "gimmie games" was 104,186.

“We’re looking at technology overall,” said Smith, who chairs the subcommittee. “We’re encouraging schools to get Wi-Fi if they don’t have it, so their fans can have access to that second screen.”

...

Smith said that this season leading up to kickoff, Ohio State will begin showing live shots on its video board of the Buckeyes prepping for the game in the locker room. It also will be airing behind-the-scenes footage of the players, such as team meetings at the hotel on Friday nights.

“Things you won’t be able to see at home,” Smith said.

...

Smith has been intrigued by the possibility of implementing a college version of NFL Red Zone, giving Ohio State fans the ability to watch key plays from around the Big Ten or even the country while waiting for the Buckeyes' game to start.

“The NFL shows Red Zone on its video boards,” Smith said, “and we’ve been thinking about how we could do something of that nature.

So that's a good start, but it's not enough. The wi-fi, for instance, is a complete no-brainer that should've been instituted a long time ago, as is giving fans a greater ability to watch video on their own. Still, while that technology is great, it won't make fans feel wanted.

So I go back to minor league baseball. Special offers for groups of people, like parents and their kids, might be a good idea. Handouts like rally towels or shirts, which almost never happen en masse at Ohio Stadium, could possibly be done once a year. A chance for greater interaction with the marching band before or after games. An actual concourse that might include a museum or other gardens, monuments, and attractions that remind people of why they're there.

No one is saying that Urban Meyer needs to dress in a chicken suit for a game, but all of these suggestions boil down to one thing: incentivizing coming to watch the Buckeyes play.

With that said, I recognize that a lot of what prevents more extensive fan interaction are logistical concerns. You can't exactly regulate, for example, a children's-only Punt, Pass, and Kick competition on the field after a game without some serious planning in place to ensure that 100,000 people don't turn up and make it a Party, Puke, and get Knocked out competition.

But what you can do as an organization is to give fans reasons to keep coming back to Ohio Stadium that don't just involve what is an almost biological urge at a genetic level among Ohio citizens to watch Buckeye football.

The truth is that right now Ohio State football views itself as the commodity that is to be cherished and taken care of, lest it go away. You, the money paying fan, are only at a Buckeye football game thanks to the great benevolence of the Ohio State Athletic Department, not because you toiled and worked and scrimped and saved up the literally hundreds of dollars that it takes to take a family of four to a game and sit in even the lowliest of seats. You, the money paying fan, are as disposable as the next fifty money paying fans who are waiting in line to take your tickets. You, the money paying fan, should be eternally grateful that the university would even deign to allow you to gaze upon the glorious visage of Ohio Stadium.

If Ohio State football (and by extension every other varsity sport that OSU offers) wants to remain strong and survive well into the future, they need to have the same mentality of a Single-A baseball club playing ball somewhere in the asscrack of Americana; that is to say that fans, alumni, and the greater Columbus community owe you nothing, and every year has to be seen as a new opportunity to prove how awesome Ohio State football really is.

Somewhere someone once said that you win with people. On the face of that's a pretty trite and obvious quip, but as a mission statement it means a whole hell of a lot. If Ohio State football wants to maintain the lead that it currently enjoys in terms of sporting goodwill in the state of Ohio, it needs to start doing more to continue winning with the people, the fans, that allow it to have success.

Comments

I've been on the belief that if things continue there without change that they will end up in the same boat as Michigan. I hope it doesn't happen but they need to do something like Johnny is talking about here. I hate to see the day Ohio State doesn't fill seats.

One of the interesting differences between student tickets at OSU and at Michigan is that you have a set (very large, to be sure) number of seats allocated for student seating, where there is more demand than available seats.

At Michigan, there has been a quasi-official policy that every student who wants to purchase a season ticket should be able to do so, and the allocation of seats in the big bowl reflect that. As a result, it seems, Michigan students have started pulling a Wisconsin, showing up late, leaving early (sometimes), and too often blowing off the game altogether.

In the rest of Michigan Stadium, where we PSD-paying alums sit, attendance patterns are little-changed.

I see this as a mostly-student phenomenon. At least at Michigan. I go to a fair number of your games as well as several Michigan road games in the Conference. OSU students are by far the most avid and faithful attendees. If the Michigan coaches did quick cals for the students during the pregame, they'd be looking at about 200 people.

In Phil Steele's magazine he outlines each teams' stadium occupancy and last year's capacity (btw we were at 102.5% and came in at 8th), but the one trend I noticed from team to team is the teams that are good fill the stands. Simply put: If you win, they will come!

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

in the past, sure, but i think the downturn in attendance that has effected the less successful teams is part of an overall trend that will start hitting the more successful teams soon. the declining attendance in ohio stadium for crappy games is an indicator that this is already happening here, and it'd be arrogant of OSU not to recognize it.

like i said in my post, they are taking some steps, but i dont think that they go far enough.

It used to be that a team would have to play 2 straight at a certain opponent due to the rotating schedule the B1G had. If I remember correctly, they looked at a 10 year period and made it so that each team would have the same amount of home vs. away games against all opponents.

I'm not sure how it worked with Nebraska coming in and going to Legends and Leaders, but now we have another 2 teams and the divisions have been re-ordered again. Either you guys going there twice is due to an attempt to even out home vs. away or the B1G office had to screw someone and you got nominated. There is precedence for that going back to 1971. :)

With the move to the new divisional schedule, it was agreed that none of UM, MSU, OSU or PSU would be required to play all of the other three on the road in any given year. On paper, that seems reasonable.

But for reasons unknown to me, to make that work Michigan had to flip the schedule with Sparty such that we now get both MSU and OSU at home or on the road in any given year. Home in odd numbered years and away in even numbered years. Presumably, Michigan was forced to change the rotation with MSU to accommodate somebody else's scheduling arrangement. Exactly what, I don't know.

Remember this when you hear about Michigan fans being pissed off at Brandon. More than anything else, this change has infuriated Michigan traditionalists and old-line season ticket holders.

The whole team creation was a mess. Aeros was a terrible name to begin with, the mascot was horrible and the colors were a poor choice. Any changes have to be better then the original. Although I'm not sure why we're holding on to the Rubber capital thing. We haven't been that since the early, early 80s. Besides I submitted the Akron Canal Rats as the team name. I'm boycotting until it's made official. Lol

TBDBITL clips still give me chills so many years and great shows later... found myself singing along and chanting O H I O in my hotel in Shanghai. will find out later if there are any other buckeyes in the building I guess. They bring so much energy it is hard to compare.

None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. ~ John Milton

What Dave Brandon has done to TSUN's fan base should also serve as a cold reminder to Gene Smith and the OSU administration that over-tinkering can be disastrous. I wasn't there but it sounded as if they hadn't lowered the ticket prices at the last minute the Spring Game would've had far less a turnout than what it had. That kind of thing is what alienates people faster than it takes Brady Hoke to find his fork.

And I agree, there should be more fan-friendly goings-on in or around the Shoe on game days. Letting the area's youths run the field for free before the game, maybe with a full house, would be something those kids would cherish the rest of their life and possibly inspire the next great generation of Ohio State players. Win-win.

"Sherman ran an option play right through the south" - Greatest Civil War analogy EVER.

There are too many pre-game tasks/routines to prepare for (not just for the team, but for the band, trainers, TV people, security, etc.) to have kids on the field before the game. While I love your idea, it's not realistic.

I do agree that alienating the fans/alumni/students with the trend towards treating them as strictly a revenue stream and/or transaction is the biggest issue facing Ohio State. Fans can deal with the horrible opponents and extreme weather that sometimes finds a way into the Shoe, but pricing people out of the seats and concessions will be the real reason why fans stop attending games. I expect pro teams to run their business like a corporation, but not the school I have poured so much time, energy, and money into.

Whenever Smith and Brandon are given their walking papers, both universities will be better off. They both have been misfits for the job. Smith sold out OSU to the NCAA and Brandon brought in a corporate demeanor to UM.

When Urban came to OSU, he made it clear to the students that the Buckeyes were their team. A great coach knows how to inspire young people and Urban has shown how to handle the team and the students(fans). Everyone recalls how Urban was pumping his fist to get the fans pumped. This is the area where I think UM is suffering. Hoke is not given free reign to handle the students the same as Urban has. Hoke has shown that he connects well with students because he recruits well and the players speak well of Hoke and his staff. When Brandon gets out of the picture, many of UMs problems will be resolved.

Schedule better teams. Don't charge so goddamn much for a ticket or concessions. Win games.

I get that there's a lot of money to be made and that winning is expensive, but never forget that for all sports team your long-term income is based entirely on your community and fandom. That means getting families into the seats, and kids involved, and being able to afford to take your 2.5 kids to the game without taking out a second mortgage.

Cool article and I agree. Like you suggest, a crowd of 100,000 plus is hard to engage than the 10,000-20,000 for many reasons. One possible thing OSU could do is hire people to engage sections of seats during breaks. T-shirts, towels, maybe a trivia bit for prize, this could and should be done for the fans. Nice read, I like it!

how about not charging $4 for a dang bottled water and drinks that literally are $1.50 at grocery stores, instead a family of 4 spends 80 bucks a ticket and then around 50 bucks for food and drink during the game

Perhaps if the athletic department didn't insist on charging $800 plus processing and convenience fees for every ticket, it wouldn't even be a hint of a problem. I could do the $150ish for student season tickets while I was there, and while that's not insignificant money, it's manageable. Now that I'm done with school, one ticket could easily cost me that 150 bucks, and I just can't justify that, especially for the cheap seats. I get the supply and demand issue here and that there are enough people that are willing to spend the money to see games, but it just seems like they are getting greedy now.

Just got my info from the Alumni Assn...2 Tix to the Va. Tech game will run me $240.00. Oh well, I guess I don't need a new Driver as much as I think I do....after all, there really is something about being in Columbus, Ohio on Saturdays in the fall. Those memories last forever.

As long as we keep up our winning traditions and continue to schedule quality home games, we will
never have a problem filling the Shoe. That is why
they can charge premium prices because of the
demand being so high. I do agree that finding way
to draw in crowds for games in 90 degree weather vs crap teams is going to be needed going forward.

Student season ticket for the 1994 season = $40. Increase the student allocation (I understand now that students can't get tickets to all the games?) and keep them affordable. When you exclude the students in lieu of a higher bidder, you shouldn't sit back and wonder why the same students aren't getting overly excited to attend.

“We’re encouraging schools to get Wi-Fi if they don’t have it, so their fans can have access to that second screen.”

This is so dumb. If you're lucky enough to be at the game, you don't need to be staring at an iPad (or your phone for that matter). Enjoy the atmosphere. Maybe even interact with those sitting around you.

Michigan has to blame the quality of the product at least a little bit, if not a lot. I think winning fixes a lot of the attendance problems. It's no one thing ever, but I think winning is a big one. Like M-man said, it's also a supply/demand thing for UofM students vs OSU students.

I agree with you Johnny that there is less and less of a reason to be attending games these days. Rising prices are keeping a lot of folks at home on Saturdays. Getting children to the games is a key. If you grow up with the tradition/habit of going to the Shoe, you'll pass that along to your children.

Wi-fi is a no-brainer. Being able to Instagram/Tweet/Facebook/etc your experiences will provide a greater social media presence not just for the team and the university but for the stadium itself. The Shoe needs to up it's Twitter game.

“Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.” - Woody

No gimmicks needed if our opponents had even a remote chance of winning (out of conference games mainly, but sadly many - if not most - B1G teams as well. B1G quality isn't what it used to be, and doesn't look to be making a drastic improvement top to bottom any time soon...). So the question is, who wants to drop all those dimes for what is essentially a WWE match, with the outcome already set in stone? IMO

1. Ohio HS football teams used to be able to buy group tickets in South Stands. Bring that back for non-marquee games. 2. I've posted this before, but I've become a convert to Power Five OOC scheduling. Every team plays an eight-game conference schedule and one OOC game against each of the other conferences, two home and two away. Play the games on weeks two, three, six, and ten. Mix the games evenly. That way on week ten you have the prospect of Minnesota at Miami or LSU at Camp Randall. The downside is you're locked into six home games and for a school like OSU that makes $7M for a home game regardless of opponent, it's a huge money hit not to have a 7th home game.

More late start/primetime games; as in noon games need to go away forever. If tens of thousands of people can show up in Pittsburgh, Lambeau, Cleveland, & the Meadowlands in Nov/Dec for 6pm games then damnit we should be able to show up for Buckeye games too.

Lower ticket prices: Period.

Allocate different sections of seating for the students: Students should be seated in both endzones AND behind the visiting team's sidelines to some extent. Students make for a raucous atmosphere and could potentially energize the crowds. Also handing out pompoms and scarlet shirts should be done all the time. I love it when NBA teams do that for the playoffs.

Lower concessions to something reasonable: People get hungry and thirsty and want to eat and drink conveniently; pricing things sooo high often prevents the average person from buying as much as they would in the first place AND it would drastically reduce waste.

Between goals and achievement is discipline and consistency. That fire you have inside to do whatever you love is placed there by God. Now go claim it. ~ Denzel Washington

Besides, getting gimmicky gives you "Pluck a Polyp" contests. Honestly, I witnessed this contest at an Evansville Otters baseball game several summers ago, sponsored by a local proctologist. Two players competed to see who could "pluck" the most pink balloons (polyps), which were taped to a board conveniently in the shape of intestines, off the board with a pair of tongs without popping them, in the allotted time. The prize? A free colonoscopy.

Every time I retell this story, which is often, I throw in "Want to know what the loser got? Two free colonoscopies." That part of the story isn't true, just fun, but let's not do this. Launch some T-shirts into the stands, have a "scream off" during TV timeouts, and maybe have some "winning ticket"-type giveaways, but let's stop with that. The stadium, the traditions, and the team should be plenty before that.

I love it at the Shoe, love every game, against every team. I didn't go to my first game until I was 18, didn't go to my second till I was 22, and have been to a total of 17 games, maybe it's cause I've only been to at the most 4 games in a single season or that growing up Ohio Stadium seemed like a mythical place that I didn't know if I'd ever get to see in person. But I love every game I get to go to, every game is a privilege to go to, I guess I'm just dull or old fashioned but I love it the way it is. In the 17 games I've made it to the Bucks have won 16 and lost 1, that one loss was the only bad experience I've had and it was cool because even after a loss to Penn State the student section sang 'We don't give a d*** for the whole state of *ichigan' after a loss as they exited. In 95 degrees and a 42-0 win over Akron was amazing cause I took my sister to her first game. I don't need bells and whistles to get me to go to the games, just a team that plays with the same love for the Buckeyes that I cheer with.

"The only good thing about it is winning the d*** thing" - Urban Meyer on The Game The War

Great article on a trend happening across all sports; professional, college, revenue generating or not. Sorry folks but I barely see anything in the story or posts that address the real issues. Gametime hit the nail best but still no discussion on the real reasons why. Basically it boils down to technology, costs and accessability.

Long & short - Why drive half way across state, hassle with traffic & parking, pay outrageous ticket and food prices when I can watch the game on my 56" flat screen HD tv with all the bratts, beer & nachos I want in the comfort of my lazyboy? But this problem exists in NFL, MLB, Nascar... not just CFB.

I remember in 1985 missing my Bio-Chemistry class to stand in line to get my folks tickets to the game against #1 Iowa. My dad could not get off work so I gave the tickets to a friend of my mother's. After the game, we were so excited. I called my dad to tell him about the game and he said, "I know what happened son, I watched the game on t.v." No enthusiasm in his voice, no energy. I realized at that moment the value of "being there" and told myself I would never miss attending a game if I had a chance to go. I do, however, still tape every game (even if I go to the game) b/c I love replays and slo-mo....tough to get that at the game..too busy cheering.

IMO, a big problem that both college and NFL teams have is a combination of the tv timeout and the 70" flat with 11.2 surround sound. Tv timeouts at the stadium suck. The teams may try and distract you with music, silly mascot tricks, t-shirt guns or other useless diversions but they still suck. On the other hand, I can sit on my fat arse in front of the 70" flat and surf to another game, watch replays or challenge my buds to a chug a lug. If I am really motivated I can get up and hit the head, retrieve more snacks and/or libations or let the dogs out. All from the comfort of my house without having to fight traffic and pay hyper inflated prices for everything. I had season tickets to a NFL team for two years and that will never happen again. I have never had tOSU season tickets, although I have attended several games at the Shoe. OSU games are like a trip to Mecca, very special, but I wouldn't want to do it every week. I just as soon gather around the flat with a few of my fellow Nuts and watch our beloved Buckeyes crush the competition in glorious 1080p.

schedule some decent non-conference teams... I am a diehard and I think Florida A&M was the first game I didn't even watch on TV past the 1st quarter more less go to the game. Ohio State football doesn't need gimics, just stop raising prices to the level of an NFL game and let the traditions of Script Ohio and the hair rising on the back of our necks when the band comes out the tunnel continue to be passed on to the next generation of Buckeye fans.